Chiefs Chronicles: Let's Just Make It To The Bye Week- 2024 Season Week 5
Our New Sponsor, What Happens When You Wait Until The Last Second, The Kareem Hunt Redemption Tour, Your Weekly Sad Fantasy Football Update, & All Written Before 3:30 AM on Sunday!
Our New Sponsor!
This will just take a second, I promise. Before getting to this week’s column, I wanted to let everyone know that we have a new sponsor here at Chiefs Chronicles!
In what way are we sponsored by Tyger Tea (FYI, here is why it’s spelled that way), you ask? Let me explain. Chiefs Chronicles, while a blast to write each week, doesn’t pay the bills (probably because I’m still giving it away for free). In order to continue having the ability to pay my aforementioned bills, I recently (soft) launched my new company Tyger Tea. It’s been in the works for a while and it’s finally live. You will be some of the first people to see the site!
(Note: That’s a not-so-subtle hint to click the link below)
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What Happens When You Wait Until The Last Second
When I published Chiefs Chronicles around 3:30 AM PST seven days ago, I was pretty proud of myself. I’d pulled it off yet again. I had completed a pretty long column right before my self-imposed deadline and it mostly made sense. Some of it was positively coherent! Maybe doing it last second (I don’t care whether you believe in ADHD or not; it’s real, I have it, and it 100% causes me to have time-management problems exactly 100% of the time) wasn’t so bad after all.
It was the perfect crime. What could possibly go wrong?
Has asking that question ever turned out well for the asker?
Never has something I’ve written become irrelevant faster than the portion of last week’s Chiefs Chronicles titled “The State of The Chiefs Receiving Corps.” If you missed it you can check it out here, about halfway down the page:
Chiefs Chronicles: Accepting The Truth Of This Team- 2024 Season Week 4
Chiefs Chronicles on Substack is a reader-supported publication. All subscriptions are FREE (for now), but if you’d like to show your appreciation for my Chiefs-focused, usually long (for more reading!), often humorous articles, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
If you didn’t read it (you can still do it⬆️) or don’t remember, I laid out all of the skinny on all of the Chiefs’ current pass-catchers (with any related upside or downside for each) and then said (and I’m paraphrasing) this:
“All of that doesn’t matter because of Rashee Rice. He is the rising tide that will lift all boats.”
It was true, too. All of it. When it all came out like I predicted and the Chiefs receiving corps were dominating opposing defenses (it was going to happen), people were going to say: “That Chiefs Chronicles guy hit this one right on the head. He’s a pretty smart dude. He should write about the Chiefs for (insert the name of your favorite site/app for Chiefs news) instead of toiling away for 93 subscribers on Substack!”
(Note: I appreciate and enjoy writing for you select few on Substack. Thanks for reading!)
The game started and it wasn’t going well on offense, but the Chiefs can always turn things around. It’s kind of what they do.
Then it happened. Patrick throws the horrible pick, there’s a fumble on the return, people are flying around going after the ball, and there’s a big scrum that the refs have to clear away. I noticed that Rashee was staying down and he was clutching his knee.
Oh, no.
Just like that, a big chunk of the newest Chiefs Chronicles didn’t work anymore (not too important), the focal point of the Chiefs offense was gone for maybe the rest of the season (more important), and a young man’s health and career were in jeopardy (very important).
We all felt sick when we saw the slo-mo view of his injury and, having experienced a hyper-extended knee when I was 10 or 11, I felt his pain. The major differences between Rashee’s injury and mine are:
Rashee: His injury was caused by the helmet of future HOF QB Patrick Mahomes (who was diving headfirst to try and recover the fumbled INT) which hit his knee and bent it backwards.
Gary: Mine was caused by my across-the-street neighbor Tyson. He jumped and kicked me right below my kneecap, which put his full weight and forward momentum on my shin. My foot was planted and my knee was locked, so it had nowhere to go but backward. It wasn’t pleasant.
Rashee: He has seen and will continue to see some of the top knee specialists in the world to determine the extent of his injury (here’s a link to an update on that front) and to receive treatment and/or have surgery for it. He is wearing a full leg sleeve and (I’m sure) has been prescribed meds for inflammation and pain. He (per Pete Sweeney) is “walking about normally without crutches.” Long-term, he should be fine.
Gary: I was helped to the school nurse’s office by two of my friends. It seems like I stayed there for a bit and then was sent back to class. I never saw a doctor (not even a general practitioner, much less a specialist) for the injury. No scans, no treatment. Just me limping around for a couple of months while it healed without assistance. Once in awhile it would give out or lock up, so I ended up wearing a neoprene knee sleeve when I played sports. My knee still bothers me sometimes.
So, the point of all this (the digression comparing our injuries just kind of happened) was to say that waiting until the last second when writing about sports can backfire on the writer pretty quickly. This was the first time it’s happened to me and it kind of stunk. In the future, I will endeavor to write Chiefs Chronicles in a more timely manner.
Starting next week. I can’t do it this week as it is already 1:54 AM PST on Sunday morning. Thankfully, the Chiefs don’t play until tomorrow night.
Chiefs Chronicles on Substack is a reader-supported publication. All subscriptions are FREE (for now), but if you’d like to show your appreciation for my Chiefs-focused, often humorous articles, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Or you can just shop at Tyger Tea!
The Kareem Hunt Redemption Tour
It was weird but cool to see Kareem Hunt back in a Chiefs uniform on Sunday. I’m glad his troubled past is (apparently) behind him and he has been able to mend fences in KC. He said that he never thought he’d be back with the Chiefs and it was crazy how it worked out.
I have to agree with him on this one. It seemed like we’d seen the last of him as a Chiefs player and it was such a shame. His actions simultaneously destroyed his reputation, his place in the league’s best offense, and what looked to be a possible Hall of Fame career-trajectory. In 2018, before the Chiefs cut him, Kareem Hunt had 1202 scrimmage yards and 14 TDs in 11 games.
Wow.
Can you imagine if he’d never messed up? Would the Chiefs have even more Super Bowl wins?
I hope that his second stint with the Chiefs ends better than his first did. How cool would it be if he helps the team pick up the Three-Peat? That would be an epic redemption story, possibly worthy of a made-for-TV movie.
Let me know what you think about anything you’ve read here or whatever else is on your mind!
Your Weekly Sad Fantasy Football Update
When the Chiefs lost Rashee Rice on Sunday, I as good as lost my fantasy football matchup. Rashee had been averaging 21+ points per week. I lost by 17 points. You do the math.
The matchup, in case you’ve forgotten was against my buddy Nick. He’s the jerk who snaked Kareem Hunt out from under me last week. Also, he read all the mean things I said about him last week and thought it was funny. He’s one of my best friends and he just has a talent for infuriating me.
I can almost hear him saying, “Agree to disagree,” and it’s making my blood pressure rise.
Anyway, back to why my team stinks and, honestly, why I may continue to lose every week. So far this season my team has lost Rashee Rice and Isiah Pacheco to injury. My 1st round pick Tyreek Hill has been straight-up trash since Tua’s been out and Keenan Allen (my supposed WR3) is either hurt or not getting targeted by the alleged “next Patrick Mahomes” AKA Caleb Williams, depending on the week. Plus, I have Kelce and he has been putting up very non-Kelce numbers every week.
Despite having the 5th most points overall in the league so far, I’m in 9th place out of 10 teams. That’s just part of the deal when you’re playing fake football, I guess. I have a chance for a “get right” win this week in my matchup against the 7th place Brandon’s Bad Team, helmed by none other than The Commish of my league.
The mind games have already started. I chose a gentle sounding team name this week, so he wouldn’t suspect my intentions. I plan to so thoroughly destroy him in our matchup that he will be forced to quit fantasy football forever. Or something like that.
Here’s the new team name/pic:
All Written Before 3:30 AM on Sunday!
I did it! It’s 2:45 and I’m almost done. Just a couple more items…
Really quickly: I think the Chiefs win on Monday Night Football.
But by what score? Every week I predict a blowout win and every week they squeak out a nailbiter. I don’t care. I’m going to keep predicting blowouts until one actually happens. Here’s my prediction:
Chiefs beat the Saints 42-13
You never know. It’s against Derek Carr, and the Chiefs have always given him fits in Arrowhead (I saw them beat him there in 2017). It will be cool to see all the ex-Chiefs who are on the Saints, but I am especially looking forward to seeing Tyrann Mathieu. He was a great Chief and I miss hearing him yell in that raspy, high-pitched voice. It will be great to watch him play again, as long as the Chiefs win.
If the Chiefs can win Monday Night without any major issues or serious injuries, they’ll be 5-0 and I’ll be able to relax a little going into the Bye Week. Let’s make it happen, guys!
Well, I think that’s all I’ve got for this week. I was going to rant about some internet stuff that’s been bugging me recently, but I’m out of time. Maybe next week.
Enjoy today’s games and, as always…
In retrospect, with better execution/luck in the red zone, it very well could have been 42-13 last night!
The Chiefs going for a 3-peat will have unexpected hurdles. It’s a shame Rice was not able to hurdle over a diving Mahomes last Sunday on the fumbled interception play by San Diego.
That being said, the defense is elite, and Andy Reid has always been able to tweak the offense with gadget plays to keep opposing defenses one step behind. By week 18, I predict the Chiefs will still win the division and have all key players back at just the right time to make a championship run. In the NFL the sky is the limit with an HOF QB, experienced coaching staff, and a motivated/talented defense.